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Speaker on Elections Canada eligibility documents: Look online

House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer. Scheer is engaged in a process now to help establish a system for dealing with complaints, ranging from harassment to sexual assault.Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer is refusing to table two letters he received from Elections Canada about the eligibility of two Conservative MPs to sit in the House and told one Liberal MP to look on the Internet if he wanted to see the documents.

Scheer received the letters from Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand on May 23 and 24, which advised that Manitoba Conservatives Shelly Glover and James Bezan could no longer sit or vote in the House of Commons because they failed to file proper campaign returns for the 2011 election.

But Scheer never told other MPs about the letters and their existence became public only this week, when the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News reported that Glover and Bezan had gone to court in Manitoba to challenge Mayrand’s position.

They have challenged Elections Canada’s interpretation of how much signage and staff expenses should be included in their returns. If they lose in court, their 2011 campaigns may be found to have exceeded spending limits.

Scheer has decided to let the MPs continue to sit in the House until the Manitoba Court of the Queen’s Bench rules on the dispute over the campaign returns, a decision likely not due until the fall.

On Thursday, Quebec Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti, speaking on a question of privilege, asked Scheer to formally table Mayrand’s correspondence for all MPs to see. Scheer declined Pacetti’s request and instead suggested that he look online.

“My understanding is these types of things are made public by Elections Canada and is even up on some website so I’m sure he’ll be able to obtain a copy if he so desires,” Scheer said, to laughs from the Conservative benches.

Copies of Mayrand’s letters have not been made public by Elections Canada but they are filed along with the original receipts, invoices and other documents submitted by the Glover and Bezan campaigns.

These documents and the attached letters are available for viewing at Elections Canada’s headquarters in Ottawa, but only in person and by appointment. The Speaker’s Office would not provide copies of Mayrand’s letters. Media organizations, including Postmedia and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, obtained copies only by visiting Elections Canada on Wednesday.

Later Thursday, Liberal MP Wayne Easter told the House of Commons that Scheer should not have kept letters about such an important issue — the eligibility of two MPs — from other members.

“A letter with that kind of content, that refers to ability of members to sit in the House of Commons, suggesting that two members should be suspended, is, I believe a letter to all of us.”

Easter said he would be willing to accept that Scheer’s office, in the heat of the moment, made a mistake about how to handle the letter.

“This is a serious matter for our chamber and our confidence in the Speaker and how the Speaker operates,” Easter said.

But Rob Walsh, who worked as the chief legal adviser to the Speaker’s office as law clerk and parliamentary counsel from 1999-2012, said Thursday that the Speaker may need time to consider the matter.

“I don’t find it unusual insofar that only two weeks have elapsed since he received the letters and it’s an unusual situation,” he said Thursday. “I don’t recall this ever coming up before, so I assume he’s giving the matter the examination it deserves before he moves forward with it.”

Walsh said that parliaments typically wait until courts rule on matters before considering them, so Scheer may be waiting until the cases are heard. Glover has an hearing June 21. Bezan’s is set for September.

But Walsh says the Liberals are within their rights to inquire of the Speaker.

“It’s a fair question they’re presenting,” he said. “The statute says what it says. They’re asking why isn’t something being done about this. It’s a legitimate question as far as it goes.”

Scheer, a Conservative, is supposed to function in a non-partisan role on such issues, but some opposition MPs privately harbour doubts about his impartiality and wonder how much sway the government holds over him on key rulings from the chair.

The CBC posted the letters on its website — apparently the Internet referenced by Scheer in response to Pacetti’s request. But the letter does not become part of the House of Commons official record until it is tabled.

Ottawa Citizen national affairs reporter covering government and politics on Parliament Hill. Specializing in data journalism and social-media evangelism. Suffering the wrath of political partisans since... read more 1998. Follow me on Twitter at @glen_mcgregor or email me at gmcgregor @ottawacitizen.com.View author's profile